A British appellate court on Friday opened the door for Julian Assange to be extradited to the US. lower court decision That the mental health of the WikiLeaks founder was too fragile to confront the US criminal justice system.
The High Court in London ruled that US assurances were sufficient to guarantee humane treatment to Assange and directed a lower court judge to send an extradition request to the Home Secretary for review. The Home Secretary, who oversees law enforcement in the United Kingdom, will make a final decision on whether to extradite Assange.
However, an appeal is likely to be made against the appellate court’s decision passed on Friday.
A lower court judge earlier this year denied a US request to extradite Assange to the US to face espionage charges over the publication of secret military documents by WikiLeaks a decade ago. District Judge Vanessa Barritser denied extradition on health grounds, saying Assange was likely to kill himself if he was held in harsh US prison conditions.
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The US appealed, challenging the notion that Assange’s mental health made him too vulnerable to face the US judicial system. Lawyer James Lewis said Assange has no history of serious and permanent mental illness and does not meet the threshold of being so ill that he cannot resist harming himself.
US officials have told British judges that if they agree to extradition Assange, he could serve any US prison sentence he meets in his native Australia.
US prosecutors Found guilty Assange faces 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer abuse over WikiLeaks’ publication of thousands of leaked military and diplomatic documents. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison, although Lewis said the longest sentence ever for the crime is 63 months.
Assange, 50, is currently being held in London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison.